This article contains spoilers for Excalibur #15 and X of Swords: Destruction
The Captain Britain Corps has returned to the Marvel Comics universe. Five years ago, in the build-up to an interdimensional epic called Secret Wars, Jonathan Hickman destroyed the Captain Britain Corps.
These are traditionally the greatest defenders of the mystical realm of Otherworld, and they serve an essential role in battling to keep the Multiverse safe. Since then, Marvel's heroes have fought against seemingly unending waves of Multiversal opponents, and Otherworld itself has become caught up in a terrible war with the forces of the demonic world of Amenth.
The X-Men's X of Swords event is, at heart, a sophisticated plan to bring back the Captain Britain Corps. The planner in question is Saturnyne, the Omniversal Majestrex and ruler of Otherworld. Unfortunately her schemes appear to have been going badly, because she'd reckoned without the X-Men's Betsy Braddock - formerly Psylocke - taking her brother's place as the Captain Britain of Earth-616. Worse still, during one of the duels of X of Swords Captain Britain was apparently killed. Betsy went head-to-head with Isca the Unbeaten, one of the greatest warriors of Amenth, and her blade was shattered by the force of a powerful blow. Shockingly, the fragmentation continued, and Betsy herself fell to pieces. In Marvel Comics, something like this usually means reality itself has broken down in some way, and readers were naturally skeptical that Captain Britain was gone for good.
They were right to be skeptical. In Excalibur #15 by Tini Howard, Mahmud Asrar, and Stefano Caselli, Saturnyne used the broken pieces of Betsy Braddock to restore the Captain Britain Corps. Betsy was supposedly killed when she wielded the Starlight Sword, a blade forged from the nexus of reality itself, and each fragment of her appears to have been linked to another version of her somewhere in the Multiverse.
All these different versions of Betsy Braddock were transformed into Captains Britain, and they were all summoned to Otherworld to work together as the reborn Captain Britain Corps. Things haven't quite played out the way Saturnyne hoped - she intended the new Captain Britain Corps to be modeled on her beloved Brian Braddock rather than his sister - but she can still chalk this up as a success.
According to X of Swords: Destruction by Tini Howard, Pepe Larraz, and Marte Gracia, the new Captain Britain Corps include:
- Captain Britain (Beth Braddock) from Earth-6
- Justicar Druidica, from Earth-14
- Captain Britain (Elizander Braddock) from Earth-15, a dimension briefly visited in Tony Bedard's Exiles run
- Captain Amphibian from Earth-22
- Alpha Briton from Earth-33, a world explored in the Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules miniseries
- Sister Britain from Earth-65, the dimension Spider-Gwen originates from
- Captain Krakoica from Earth-78
- The Green Woman from Earth-99
- Captain Angland from Earth-305; this Earth had previously contributed Captain Angleterre to the old Corps
- Captain Albion from Earth-523, a neo-Elizabethan world seen in 1983's Daredevils #6
- Captain Britain (Liz Braddock) from Earth-812
- Captain UK from Earth-839, a reality protected by a previous version of Captain UK based on Brian Braddock
- Captain Bretland from Earth-904, a dimension visited in What If? #12 in which the X-Men stayed in Asgard
- Captain Granbretan from Earth-1812, a world where Napoleon conquered Britain
- Captain Plumdragon from Earth-2112
- High Priestess Celtia from Earth-2113
- Crusader X from Earth-2122, where the UK still rules America and World War I never happened
- Centurion Britannia from Earth-4100, an Earth heavily influenced by the legacy of Rome
- Captain Baboon from Earth-8101, an Earth visited in Amazing Spider-Man Family #1 and in the Marvel Zombies: Evil Evolution miniseries, typically home to simian versions of classic heroes
- The Violet Swan from Earth-8311, the dimension of Spider-Ham
- Elspeth Braddock from Earth-13059, a Lord of the Rings style universe visited in X-Treme X-Men
- Britannica Rex from Earth-99476, where dinosaurs survived and became Earth's dominant species
Betsy Braddock, the Prime Captain Britain, remains missing - and Excalibur will return to Otherworld in search of her in the upcoming Reign of X era, meaning we're sure to see a lot more of the new Captain Britain Corps going forward.